The Evaluative Essay: From Reading to Rating [Assignment/Rubric]
Christopher Manes
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this assignment, students will
- evaluate a given text against a predetermined rating system (unsatisfactory, needs improvement, meets expectations, exceeds expectations, and outstanding).
- compose an evaluation paper that integrates textual evidence, quotes, and paraphrases from the essay to support their ratings and overall assessment.
Assignment Prompt
Select an essay. Students can either choose one on their own or be assigned one. Analyze and evaluate the text using a rating system of unsatisfactory, needs improvement, meets expectations, exceeds expectations, and outstanding.
Assignment Steps
First, use the essay title to develop 5W1H (who, what, where, when, why, how) questions. See the Pre-Reading Tip: Annotating Titles for the full assignment.
Second, read the essay to answer the 5W1H questions developed in the first step.
Third, answer the following evaluative questions in 3-5 sentences. Where appropriate, your answers to the 5W1H questions (from the first two steps) and your overall impression should inform your responses.
- Unsatisfactory: What was a fact, opinion, or place in the essay that seemed impermissible? Explain why.
- Needs Improvement: What was an opinion or fact that seemed appropriate but needed more explanation to be impactful or to directly answer one of the questions developed from the title? Explain why.
- Meets Expectations: Where in the essay did the author(s) directly address questions the student developed from the title? Explain why.
- Exceeds Expectations: What was a surprise or unexpected insight gained? Explain why.
- Outstanding: What is one insight or writing style you encountered in the essay that seems exemplary enough to be modeled in your future writing? Explain why.
Each question should be answered directly in the first sentence, supported with evidence (quotes or paraphrases) from the essay in the second and third sentences, and concluded with final thoughts, creating brief paragraphs of about 3-5 sentences for each rating: unsatisfactory, needs improvement, etc.
Note to Students: Evaluative questions can be answered using, as evidence, the essay’s content and/or the author’s writing style (rhetoric). When using quotes or paraphrases, be sure to cite and explain the contents. Do not assume a reader will read a quote or paraphrase and interpret it the same way as you.
After each of the evaluative questions have been fully answered in 3-5 sentences, the student needs to decide, of the five ratings, which one is most important. The most important rating will then become the basis for the introduction, thesis, and conclusion. Students may also need to rewrite the first sentences or add new sentences to each paragraph, explaining each rating in comparison or contrast to the one that the student feels is most distinctive.
Rubric
Total Possible Points: 100 points
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Downloadable Resources (Rubric)
Click here to download a Word Doc version of the rubric:
Rubric – The Evaluative Essay: From Reading to Rating assignment
Attribution:
Manes, Christopher. “The Evaluative Essay: From Reading to Rating [Assignment/Rubric].” Strategies, Skills and Models for Student Success in Writing and Reading Comprehension. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. This work is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
